Ground-breaking Women Poets’ Prize opens for 2020 submissions
The 2020 judges: Liz Berry, Malika Booker, Pascale Petit
The biennial Women Poets’ Prize, founded by the Rebecca Swift Foundation, launches into its second prize year today. Honouring Rebecca Swift’s two key passions – poetry and women’s empowerment – the unique prize is awarded every two years to three women writers who each receive a holistic package that combines financial aid, creative development, well-being, and pastoral support. This includes:
a £1000 cash bursary,
a poetry mentor for the duration of a year,
the offer of pastoral coaching,
creative opportunities, from performance to bookbinding,
practical support, such as digital skills training and childcare cover, and
links and collaborations with prize partners.
The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire – one of the UK’s most prestigious music and drama schools – comes on board as a new partner in 2020, working with the prize to provide poets with voice coaching opportunities. The RBC joins Faber and Faber, Bath Spa University, The Literary Consultancy (TLC), City Lit, Verve Festival, and The Poetry School as partners through which the full benefits of the prize are being delivered.
Also new in 2020, all 30 poets on the longlist will be offered a year’s free membership to Being A Writer, the innovative writers’ creativity platform just launched by prize partners TLC, the UK’s leading editorial consultancy.
The Women Poets’ Prize returns after a hugely successful inaugural year: In 2018, it received nearly 600 submissions by poets from across the UK. At least one third of applicants were women of colour, with an age range spanning 18-70s.
An independent evaluation of the first year – conducted by literary consultant Nathalie Teitler – found the Women Poets’ Prize to be “an essential new prize” bringing together an unusually diverse range of voices across the UK, many of whom were entering a prize for the first time. The report found that many women, often silenced for socio-economic or cultural reasons, were encouraged by the unique mix of financial aid, professional and pastoral support, making it “an important model for literature organisations in the UK going forward.”
The judges for 2020 are confirmed to be the award-winning poets Liz Berry, Malika Booker and Pascale Petit.
““I won’t know what I’m looking for until I find it – I’m hoping for surprises! I’m open to work that is beyond my aesthetic and taste, and will read with an adventurous mind. This is such a fantastic prize, where the winners will be nurtured and fully supported with pastoral care as well as top mentors. There are so many new women’s worlds to discover, it’s exciting to be part of that process and I can’t wait for the discussions with my dream co-judges Malika and Liz.””
Commenting on the impact of the prize, the three 2018 winners said the following:
“Along with the opportunities and nurturing – not least, the sustained mentoring with Mona Arshi – the Women Poets’ Prize did something profound to my sense of myself as a poet: being taken seriously gave me confidence - and confidence is the magic ingredient in our ability to write. ”
“The Women Poets’ Prize was such a lovely thing to be awarded, and gave me a boost when I needed it. The best part has been the six sessions of mentorship from my highly-professional and astute mentor (Isobel Dixon), as well as feeling.”
“It’s been incredibly invigorating and energising for me, and has allowed me to access opportunities that I don’t think I would ever have been able to access otherwise. At the time when I won the prize I feel like I was still very new to the poetry landscape in the UK, and totally new to publishing, and so I think it’s given me a sense of community and ongoing support. New readers have come to my work through the prize, which is incredible, and quite life-changing.”
When Nina Mingya Powles’s debut, Magnolia, was shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry last month, she found herself on the list alongside two of the poets who mentored her through the Women Poets’ Prize: Martha Sprackland (Citadel) and Rachel Long (My Darling from the Lions).
Submissions for the 2020 Women Poets’ Prize close on Friday, 14th August. The prize is free to enter. For guidelines on how to submit, visit: www.rebeccaswiftfoundation.org/women-poets-prize
The shortlist will be announced on Friday, 2nd October 2020. Find out more and join the conversation via www.rebeccaswiftfoundation.org | @FoundationSwift
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